"Having been a snowplow driver myself, that is a major problem, and it's something I don't think is going to change," said Lambert Howe, chairman of Bellingham's Commission on Disability.
"It's a fact of life."

Howe, who is a double amputee, has at times received eight calls a day from residents and shoppers complaining about obscured or missing signs.

Most of the complaints have been at smaller businesses rather than the larger chain stores.
Howe doesn't know how many signs have been buried in snow, because he hasn't been able to travel around town in the winter weather, he said.